Market Commentary

July 2017 Investment Strategy

The S&P 500 Index has continued to make marginal new all-time highs, rising 2.6% during the past quarter and 8.2% in total for 2017. These gains are being driven primarily by five mega-cap technology companies including Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Google. While these companies continue to surge upward, the average company in the S&P 500 Index has hardly participated. We believe 4 of these 5 companies are now moderately-to-significantly overvalued and benefiting from unreasonable Wall Street expectations. In addition to these companies, there are a growing number of red flags in the broader marketplace and economy. Although the stock indexes may continue to creep upward, we believe it is important to use this time to reduce risk in client portfolios.